APSA 1 (0) vs (0) 1 Bethnal Green

Brown, Langton, McCallagh, Ali, P Mpalampa, Mustapha, S Mpalampa, Aubynn, Akpele, Burgess, Houghton. Subs: Shah, Bapu, Ellis

APSA welcomed a high flying Bethnal Green to the Terrence MacMillan stadium for this league game on a wet Saturday afternoon.  APSA felt hard done by and felt that they should have taken something out of their previous meeting at Mile End Stadium earlier in the season.

 

The game was even throughout the majority of the first half with both defensives on top.  APSA's skipper Langton was using his experience to keep APSA's young defence organised.  Manager John Higley, drafted in Ali at the back to partner McCallagh and, between them, they marshalled Green's in-form striker Stephenson very well, limiting him to few chances. 

 

APSA's young keeper, Brown, was also commanding when called upon, taking the pressure off of the back four.  APSA worked hard to regain possesion whenever it was lost and were also limited to the number of attacks that they could produce, as a result of Green's strong defending.  Akpele, Burgess and Aubynn were finding space, but were getting thwarted just at the final hurdle.

 

In the 26th minute, Akpele picked up the ball and went on a run.  He played a thoughball to Aubynn who made a run to the byline and sent in a dangerous low cross.  However, there was no one there to get on the end of it. 

The second half continued in the same vein as the first half with chances few in number.  In the 65th minute, APSA were awarded a free kick.  Houghton stepped up and sent in a dangerous ball, which just evaded everyone.  The breakthrough came a minute later though.  Langton played a great ball into Aubynn.  He controlled it well and ran past two players.  His shot rebounded off of the post and Burgess was on hand to tap the ball into an empty net to make it 1-0.

9 minutes later, the ref awarded a very dubious free kick to Green, when Aubynn was adjudged to have fouled Stephenson on the edge of the box. The ball was sent in low and, in the confusion, bounced off S Mpalampa and bobbled into the net to bring Green bake into the game and make it 1-1.

 

That's how the game finished and manager Higley had this to say, 'The lads were suberb today.  Bethnal Green are second in the league and, in my opinion, are lucky to come away with a point today.  The defence and midfield were superb today, working hard and limiting their chances.  I don't think that the free-kick that led to the goal was a free-kick.  The ref got that wrong, but he didn't have a good game today !!  He gave yellow cards out for soft tackles and let the important stuff go !!

 

I know that we can play like that, now we just have to be more consistent and if we do that, we will climb that league table.